Gilded Age

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For general context, see History of the United States (1865–1918).

The "Gilded Age" in American History refers to the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction Era from 1865 to 1901, which saw unprecedented economic, territorial, industrial, and population expansion. The drastic increase in the diversity of the United States due to immigration, drawn by the promise of American prosperity, encountered increased prejudice and racial discrimination from the largely Anglo-Saxon majority.

The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), employing the ironic difference between a "gilded" and a Golden Age. The inequalities of the period are highlighted by the American upper class's proclamation of an "American Renaissance", citing the rush of new public institutions established during the period—hospitals, museums, schools, opera houses, public libraries, symphony orchestras—and the Beaux-Arts architectural idiom of the time.

The age of prosperity enjoyed by the upper classes of American society after the recovery from the Panic of 1873 floated on the surface of the booming economy of the Second Industrial Revolution, and it was fired by the period of wealth transfer that catalyzed dramatic social changes, creating for the first time a class of the super-rich "captains of industry". These "Robber barons" whose network of business, social and family connections, ruled a social world with clearly defined boundaries. Other important features of the Gilded Age were drastic changes made in education to assimilate the immigrants, the religion movements, and the huge empires that were built in a newly national press, notably by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

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The American West

Main article: American Old West.

The Gilded Age was rooted in heavy American industrialization, the construction of railroads and the expansion of the American West. The contemporary mythos of the American West centers on the independent exploration of adjacent territory by frontiersmen, but in fact the exploration also involved a government-backed plan of expansion. This perception of individualism was the result of (or was expressed in) the political theories of Frederick Jackson Turner, who attributed the strong development of democracy in the United States to the open frontier.

The government issued 160 acre (64 hectare) land grants to families moving to the west under the Homestead Act. This expansion into the west created a need for workers in the area to build railroads and facilitate trade. When Americans began to move west, the Native Americans resisted. Land conflicts arose, and eventually the U.S. government stipulated that the Native Americans settle in a fixed area to allow the region around them to progress and fill with American citizens. The Native Americans however, followed the buffalo, and being an inherently nomadic civilization had no interest in settling. In response the American government declared "war" on the buffalo.

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Industrial & Technological Advances

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During the Gilded Age, American manufacturing production had surpassed the combined total of Great Britain, Germany, and France. But the country's economic success was rooted in the earlier days of the Industrial Revolution. It had been responsible for creating the vital infrastructure for the creation and transportation of goods, services, and raw materials. Railroad mileage tripled between 1860 and 1880, and tripled again by 1920, opening new areas to commercial farming, creating a truly national marketplace and inspiring a boom in coal mining and steel production. The voracious appetite for capital of the great trunk railroads facilitated the consolidation of the nation's financial market in Wall Street. By 1900 the process of economic concentration had extended into most branches of industry—a few giant corporations dominated in steel, oil, sugar, meatpacking, and the manufacture of agriculture machinery. Other major components of this infrastructure were the new methods for fabricating steel: the Bessemer and the Siemens steel making processes.

Increased mechanization of industry is a major mark of the Gilded Age's search for cheaper ways to create more product. Frederick Winslow Taylor observed that worker efficiency in steel could be improved through the use of machines to make fewer motions in less time. His redesign increased the speed of factory machines and the productivity of factories while undercutting the need for skilled labor. This mechanization transformed the factory floor from a collaboration of tradesmen to an assemblage of unskilled laborers performing simple and repetitive tasks.

In addition to booming industry, the Gilded Age also marked many advances in technology. From 1860 to 1890, 500,000 patents were issued for new inventions—over ten times the number issued in the previous seventy years. Locomotive air brakes and the Alexander Graham Bell's revolutionary telephone (and its precursor the telegraph) appeared during this time. With more advanced technology and bigger business came the need for greater quantities of electricity, especially in larger cities. This prompted Thomas A. Edison to construct a large integrated power plant capable of lighting multiple buildings simultaneously. Oil was also becoming an increasingly popular source of energy, inspiring many entrepreneurs to begin drilling for crude in the Americas.

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Politics of The Gilded Age

After Reconstruction, many American politicians began to question the policies supporting direct government intervention in the market. A resulting shift occurred to a freer market and a Laissez-Faire (hands-off) government. Supporters of the theory claimed that if the government does not interfere the strongest business would succeed and, as a whole, make the nation wealthier (see also: Social Darwinism). Despite the movement's popular support from the influential members of society, many people wanted a government whose economic intervention ensured a more equal system. This period is another example of the liberty vs. equality dilemma of American political philosophy.

During The Gilded Age, corruption ruled supreme in the political system. The "spoils system" dating back to the presidency of Andrew Jackson allowed the winning party to hand virtually all government jobs and government contracts to its supporters. Political parties were dominated by political machines, in which constituents supported a candidate in exchange for anticipated patronage—favors back from the government, once that candidate was elected—and candidates were selected based on their willingness to play along. The more money at one's disposal, the more political and economic power. Those who were elected to office were not beyond using their power to gain personal profit. There were a multitude of scandals involving politicians exploiting contracted companies, such as the Credit Mobilier incident.

Presidential elections between the two major parties (the Republicans and Democrats), were closely contested. Mudslinging became an increasingly popular way of gaining advantage at the polls, and Republicans employed an election tactic known as "waving the bloody shirt". Candidates, especially when combating corruption charges, would remind voters that the Republican Party had saved the nation in the Civil War. During the 1870s voters were repeatedly reminded that the Democrats had been responsible for the bloody upheaval, an appeal that attracted many Union veterans to the Republican camp. The Republicans consistently carried the North in presidential elections. The South, on the other hand, was solidly Democratic. The horror and deprivation of the Civil War and Reconstruction were still fresh in many minds. Conversely, the Democrats invoked images of the "lost cause" and the glorious "stars and bars" in much the same way Republicans "waved the bloody shirt". Overall, Republican and Democratic political platforms remained remarkably constant during the years before 1900. The negativity and ambiguity of politics began a shift in the press to yellow journalism, in which sensationalism and sentimental stories took as prominent a role as factual news. This change may have been due to a common wish for distraction from the harshness of daily life, as a form of escapism. A more positive aspect of this trend was the rise in production and popularity of the film and sound recording industry.

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Influential Figures

Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were two of the most influential people during the Gilded Age. Carnegie was born into a poor Scottish family and began his career at the age of 13 working for a local cotton factory. He got a break at the age of 14 when Thomas A. Scott saw the talent that Carnegie demonstrated while working as a messenger, and decided to make him his secretary. In 1870 Carnegie erected his first blast furnace. He took on several partners to promote his business. Despite their participation in the Gilded Age's economic system, both Carnegie and Rockefeller went on to found philanthropic institutions for the betterment of society. During his lifetime Andrew Carnegie established Carnegie University (now Carnegie-Mellon University) to educate his workers and create a more productive and positive workforce.

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Immigration

During the Gilded Age, approximately 10 million immigrants came to the United States, many in search of religious freedom and greater prosperity. The population surge in major U.S. cities as a result of immigration gave cities an even stronger impact on government, attracting power-hungry politicians and entrepreneurs. Pressuring voters or falsifying ballots was par for the course for many politicans, who often sought power only to exploit their constituents. To accommodate the influx of people into the U.S., the federal government built Ellis Island in 1892 near the Statue of Liberty. To alleviate health concerns, the government mandated in 1892 that all immigrants were to undergo physical exams. Acceptance into the U.S. therefore depended on your clean bill of health; those with diseases were either quarantined or deported.

Human nature compels people to associate with those who share common traits, and immigrants were no exception. This prompted the establishment of concentrated ethnic groups throughout the nation. Groups of Poles and Italians settled in places such as Buffalo and Cleveland. Not surprisingly, few immigrants went to the South, which offered very few jobs to newcomers. Similar attitudes were found in other areas that had restrictive covenants. These were discriminatory, but legal, agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain groups of people. The limited availability of decent housing and employment often locked immigrants into the lower class.

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The Chinese Exclusion

The industrial opportunity brought to the West by increased settlement attracted a growing number of Chinese immigrants, who poured into California via the Pacific Ocean. By the turn of the century there were about 300,000 Chinese immigrants in the West. Most of the Chinese obtained low-paying jobs working for the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad companies—the two railroads that would join at Promontory, Utah to form the First Transcontinental Railroad. A large number of Chinese immigrants returned to their countries (a greater proportion than most other immigrant groups) yet most of them stayed in the United States. Those who stayed created "Chinatowns." Such separation by ethnic group was common; it provided comfort and familiarity to the immigrants while native citizens of the U.S. were apathetic to the separation.

Most Chinatowns enjoyed a larger sense of community and familiarity than other immigrant enclaves. The success of the Chinese despite harsh and often unfair labor conditions was the essential reason many people used to discriminate against them. Competition between the immigrants and the naturalized citizens caused Unions to oppose the influx of Chinese labor. Accordingly, many Chinese businesses were shut down by locals. Of the many cases brought through the judicial system, one of the most prominent was Yick Wo vs. Hopkins. Hopkins was a San Francisco sheriff who began closing Chinese businesses, citing that the Chinese, most of whom were not American citizens, were not entitled to rights provided to citizens. Hopkins's case was defeated, as the Supreme Court concluded that all people on American soil are entitled to American rights and liberties, regardless of their status.

Unfortunately this decision caused a backlash. Congress banned further Chinese immigration through the Chinese Exclusion Act. Passed in 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States. Immigrants who had already entered the U.S. and left however, were still permitted to come back. The act was renewed in 1892, and again 1902, and then made permanent. In 1910 the federal government built an immigration center on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, where immigrants underwent a lengthy examination before residing on the mainland.

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Labor unions

Modern labor unions were born when wage labor prevailed in the labor market. The unions aimed to maintain the dignity of American laborers. Strong localized unions appeared after the Civil War to help workers through economic strife, but later became conduits to voice worker's demands such as shorter workdays and higher wages. One of the earlier attempts at a national union was the National Labor Union, formed in Baltimore in 1866—Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) followed.

Pullman, a maker of luxury rail cars, created a factory with a town surrounding it to bring workers closer to the factories. Workers soon became dissatisfied with working conditions however, and revolted. Pullman brought in the Pinkerton Detective Agency to defend the factory and subdue the riots. In response, Eugene Debs told railroad workers (all members of the American Railroad Union) to stop handling Pullman rail cars, effectively halting the movement of passenger trains across the U.S.

Pullman's staff pored over federal laws and regulations, eventually discovering that if they attached a federally owned post-car to Pullman trains, it would be a federal offense to stop them. A lawsuit followed wherever workers and union members halted federal cars. A significant court decision was issued in Eugene V. Debs. The decision stated that the unions were companies, and that under the Sherman Antitrust Act companies could not conspire to constrain or control trade. It was concluded that Debs's attempt to stop the movement of Pullman's trains was a conspiracy to constrain trade. Debs was put in jail and received no support from other Union supporters, including Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL. Debs spent six months in jail, leaving the American Railway Union, of which he was the chair, in shambles. Employees of Pullman were forced to sign anti-union, low-paying contracts and their labour conditions worsened. Debs went on to found the Socialist Party of America, an offshoot of his earlier Social Democratic Party, which advocated socialist ideals.

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References

  • Alan Brinkley; "The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume II: From 1865" McGraw Hill Higher Education 2004.
  • Nancy Cohen; The Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865-1914 University of North Carolina Press, 2002
  • Fine, Sidney. Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State: A Study of Conflict in American Thought, 1865–1901. University of Michigan Press, 1956.
  • Jensen, Richard. "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885-1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (U of Kansas Press, 2001) pp 149-180; online version
  • H. Wayne Morgan, ed. The Gilded Age: A Reappraisal Syracuse University Press 1970.
  • Ted Curtis Smythe; The Gilded Age Press, 1865-1900 Praeger. 2003.
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See also

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External links

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